The History of Capital Punishment
The first death penalty laws were established in the Eighteeth Century B.C by King Hammaurabi and ordered the death penalty for 25 different crimes. Capital punishment was enforced for certain crimes until the Seventh Century B.C.'s Draconion Code of Athens made the death penalty the only possible punishment for every crime. Until the Fifth Century B.C. capital punishment was carried out by crucifying, drowning, beating to death and impalement but in the Tenth Century B.C. hanging became the usual method of execution in Britain and this continued for many centuries. Under Henry VIII, almost 72,000 people were executed and the method varied from boiling, burning or hanging. The number of capital crimes in Britain continued to rise during the next two centuries. By the 1700s, 222 crimes were punishable by death in Britain, including stealing, cutting down a tree, and robbing a rabbit warren. Since the death penalty was so severe, most juries would not convict the suspects if the offence was not as serious and this lead to the death penalty being reformed in Britain. Between 1823 and 1837, the death penalty was abolished for over 100 of the 222 crimes that were punishable by death.
America was influenced by Britain's laws regarding capital punishment more than any other country. European settlers brought capital punishment to America when they came to the 'new world'. The first execution was Captain George Kendall's in 1608 for being a Spanish spy. From 1612, the death penalty was enforced for even minor offences, such as stealing grapes! Capital punishment in the United States is currently limited under the Eight Amendment to the United States Constitution and is now used almost exclusively for aggravated murders, committed by 'mentally competent' adults.Capital punishment was a penalty for many felonies under English common law, and it was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence. It is currently a legal sentence in 32 states, as well as the federal civilian and military legal systems. Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1979, thirty-four states have performed executions. Texas has performed the most executions by far, and Oklahoma has had (through mid-2011) the highest per capita execution rate. The methods of execution and the crimes subject to the death penalty vary by state and have changed over time. The most common method since 1976 has been lethal injection. In 2013, 39 inmates were executed in the United States and 3,108 were on death row – an execution rate of less than 2%. Many states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Ohio and Arizona regularly execute convicted murderers.
Currently, fifty-eight nations currently enforce capital punishment and ninety-eight countries have abolished it for all crimes. The most common forms execution are the electric chair, firing squad or decapitation and lethal injection was recently introduced. The method of execution varies depending on culture and it is common in the countries of the Pacific for those accused of sorcery to face horrific deaths. The country currently performing the most capital punishments is Asia which performs 90% of all death sentences world wide, this is due to capital punishment being enforced for a variety of different crimes in Asia such as drug-trafficking. The last executions in the United Kingdom were by hanging, and took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder (in 1965 in Great Britain and in 1973 in Northern Ireland). Although not applied since, the death penalty was abolished in all circumstances in 1998. In 2004 the 13th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights became binding on the United Kingdom, prohibiting the restoration of the death penalty for as long as the UK is a party to the Convention. The People's Republic of China keep the statistics regarding their usage of the death penalty confidential, but numbers are estimated to over a thousand. Currently, the usage of capital punishment is decreasing world wide with the exception of Japan which has increased the number of death penalties that have been administered in the past few years. Today, only twenty-one countries use the death penalty and this number is declining since opposing non-government funding parties, such as Amnesty International, protest against capital punishment worldwide.
Most common methods